Thursday, February 18, 2010

ABC’s The Italian Way

The best way to learn a new language is when you’re young and I say you can’t start too early. Here’s a chance to win a free baby book for a friend who might want to teach Italian to the little one in the house. Or maybe it could be a starting point even for you as an adult to learn Italian.

Joe of Italyville has just posted an interesting interview with Sonya Caruso, the author/illustrator of ABC Italiano, and will be sending me 10 books to disperse with as I please. But in order to get the books, he needs you to leave a comment on his blog. For each comment, he’ll buy one book (up to 50) and send the books to me and several other bloggers to disseminate.

I am a member of a large Italian community here in Princeton so I will have no trouble finding homes for the books that Joe sends my way. But I’d like to give away half of them (5) to readers of Ciao Chow Linda. You want one? It’s as simple as ABC - just leave a comment following this blog and I’ll choose five names at random.

I also would like to have this book for myself. I am trying to learn to speak and read Italian. I lost my dear Mom a couple of years ago (she was born in Avellino) and I have some correspondence between my Mom and her sister (who lives in Italy, but I've never met). Of course they are written in Italian. These letters may help me contact family in Italy that I've never met or known, but desperately want to!

I also would like to have this book for myself. I am trying to learn to speak and read Italian. I lost my dear Mom a couple of years ago (she was born in Avellino) and I have some correspondence between my Mom and her sister (who lives in Italy, but I've never met). Of course they are written in Italian. These letters may help me contact family in Italy that I've never met or known, but desperately want to!

I'd LOVE to have this book to share with my two grandchildren -- a boy, tre anni, and a brand new girl, cinque messi. My grandson understands many of the words I use around him and he uses them as well - especially the food words.

Oh I would love to be able to teach my grandsons Italian. Oh how I miss my Grandmother speaking Italian to me as she made the macaroni gravy in her kitchen and my Mother and Aunts chatting away in Italian.Joyce

Would love the book as I am teaching myself Italian in the car during my long commute every day to and from work. My first great niece was just born and I would love to give her and her parents the book. Thank you!

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Making Bigoli with Dad

The Torchio

The device you see in the video above is a "torchio," a hollow brass tube attached to a bench or a wall. Different metal "dies" can be inserted in the torchio for different shapes of pasta. The torchio belonged to my mother's family in Italy. After decades of collecting dust in my basement, the torchio was recently resurrected when my father offered to make a bench for it. The torchio is screwed to the bench, semolina pasta dough is fed into the tube, the crank is turned, and with a lot of elbow grease, pasta is extruded through the die. What comes out below is a tubular pasta - anything from thin spaghetti to bucatini, similar to a hollow straw.

About Me

In my last life, I was a journalist in NYC, but left the rat race to live in Italy for a year. I created this blog upon my return to combine my interests of writing and photography with my love of food and travel. My mother was from the region of Emilia-Romagna, my father's family was from Calabria and my late husband's family is Abruzzese. I am remarried now to an Italian-American whose family comes from Veneto and Campania. Is it any wonder then, that Italian art, music, food and the country's beautiful landscape are among my passions? I hope you will try some of the recipes and post comments. Buon Appetito. Linda